Be Moved - Chelmsford Borough Council

Driving participationWhilst the national 3 x 30mins per week sports activity target has been suspended, the importance ofincreasing and sustaining participation remains paramount. The Council is committed to encouraging greaterparticipation in sport by young people and Sport England's new Youth and Community Strategy 2012-2017promotes a significantly increased focus on youth, with Whole Sport Plans and other programmes reachingdown to 14 year olds. New funding will be available nationally for improving the transition from school sportto community sport. Sport England also advocates improving the sporting participation opportunities foryoung people in further and higher education. To help better understand the needs of young people, we willconsult regularly with the Council's new Youth Panel, which is set for launch later this year.To assist the Council in audience development, data gathered through the Leisure Plus Scheme can highlightthose groups that are under represented. The importance of encouraging older people and those withdisabilities to stay active remains a key priority for the Council. Sports Development runs a Disability SportsSupport Scheme which has successfully increased participation in a range of sports.“With start-up funding from the Council's Disability SportsSupport Scheme, Chelmsford Boccia Club was formed inJanuary 2011. This has helped a range of disabled people getinto the sport. The club caters for people with variousdisabilities including competitors who are blind, deaf, andparaplegic. Already two players have competed at nationalBoccia competitions, with one showing potential as aninternational player. At the Active Chelmsford SportsAwards 2011 the club was highly commended as Sports Clubof the year”Chelmsford Boccia ClubEnsuring access to our Leisure and Cultural services is part of our ‘Triple A’ approach. In Chelmsford,between 2008 and 2010, 30.4% of those citizens with a limiting disability participated in a creative, artistic,theatrical or musical activity. This is slightly below the national average and we will investigate this further.Chelmsford Theatres' access arrangements include signed, audio described and captioned performances, infrared hearing headsets and an essential companion scheme for those with disabilities. The Cultural EventsTeam will explore how to involve and engage greater numbers of people with disabilities.Use of New TechnologyThe Council will continue to utilise new technologies to assist in the promotion of events, activities andprogrammes. We are committed to developing further our use of social media, as well as exploring the use ofmobile phone and tablet applications. We will also seek to improve online booking systems to furtherimprove the customer experience.26Be Moved